positions are. i think it's called romnesia. >> yes, romnesia, a condition we've been highlighting for months. >> i'm not familiar with precisely with exactly what i said but i stand by what i said whatever it was. >> if you come down with a case of romnesia, here is a good news, obama care covers pre-existing conditions. >> i'm not familiar with precisely with exactly what i said. >> that's romnesia. >> but i stand by what i said, whatever it was. >> romnesia. ♪ >> we begin with a forward looking friday just 18 days to go and team obama is out rallying voters in two of the tightest battlegrounds in this election. staking his hopes that virginia is for democrats, today the president made the short journey to fairfax for a huge rally with

risers full of women in which he related the troubling news of a strange multipositioned illness that's been dogging mitt romney this entire campaign. >> we got to name this condition he's going through. i think it's called romnesia. if you come down with a case of romnesia and you can't seem to remember.policies that are still on your website or the promises you've made over the six years you've been running for president, here is the good news. obama care covers pre-existing conditions. >> yes, the president's plan will get him fixed up. lucky for mitt. certainly sounds as though that condition could be serious though. and down in sun city, florida,

it was vice president joe biden who hit the same theme with a new twist on an old favorite. riffing on the president's description of romney's sketchy deal. >> but i would respectfully suggest they're not sketchy, they're etch-a-sketchy. they're shaking that sucker. i tell you what, dial in a new sketch. >> yes, indeed, they are desperately trying to dial in a new sketch, one that will lay out a path to the white house which is looking rather more challenging with two new nbc polls that reinforce the president's firewall in the midwest. in wisconsin obama leads romney by six points among likely voters, 51% to 45%. in iowa the president is up by eight points, 51% to 3%. bo both of them nearly identical to last month. here is an electoral challenge. iowa plus wisconsin plus ohio

equals four more years for president obama. let's get right to our panel. in washington professor michael eric dyson, an msnbc political analyst, dana bill mamilbank a columnist for "the washington post," and ari melber, i'm suffering a case of romnesia, he's a msnbc political whatever. when it comes to the etiology of romnesia one of the major factors for causation appears to be a vac with us outlook without any convictions whatsoever aside from a strong sens of entitlement. two weeks to the election, will the american public elect a man just because he's a millionaire and he wants the job? >> well, it's a serious case that you have diagnosed, so we have to get into the details. there's the old saying that the problem with political jokes is that sometimes they get elected. mitt romney is a joke, and barack obama, who looked in

great form out there, looked like he's having fun, is doing something really important here, which is taking these series of changes and hypocrisies and really making light of it. what makes something funny? what can jay leno or david letterman joke about? only things where everyone understands the punch line. as you documented on this show, people know that mitt romney doesn't have a firm position. people watch the debates and saw him basically end with this closing argument, don't worry, i'm different than i used to be. it's not a very aggressive closing argument. >> dana, this condition is clearly contagious. it appears to have also infected the entire staff at fox news. and there are real fears that monday's debate coverage at fox could be covered in romnesia particularly after the republican nominee put women in binders and was so badly wrong on libya. do you expect mr. romney to keep hammering the tragedy in libya on monday given the subject of the debate is foreign policy? >> i do. now, martin, we have talked

about this possibility of a romney head injury before. i have been talking to some political neurologists, and it appears what happens is on his way in august down to tampa, he slipped and hit his -- fell and hit his head on the republican platform. >> oh. >> and this is what's caused the romnesia. >> would that be the republican platform with the personhood amendment in it -- >> many jagged edges. you can see the problem there. >> i get it. >> the good news he's expected to recover on or about november 7th, return to his original positions. given that the debate is monday, i expect that he will continue to revise and extend his positions. so i can't actually predict what he might say. >> indeed, professor dyson, this condition has mutated into a much more virulent form, case in point paul ryan. mr. ryan voted against the lilly ledbetter act, supported the blunt amendment, co-spon esored

two bills with todd "legitimate rape" bills. do you think it's time for mr. ryan to be forcibly hospitalized to prevent further damage to his reputation? >> first of all, we have to see if william butler yates was left handed. what's interesting is romnesi eric seems to be accompanied by another disease, ryanopia, the incapacity and inability to acknowledge you held positions and those positions you cherished so deeply are now, you know, if you will, relegated to the side, and what takes place is a kind of policy about which you have no conviction. is romnesia and ryanopia seem to be pre-existing conditions that need to be dealt with by on obama-like surgical procedure that might remove them. and so far biden and obama have been on the case as physicians

to heal the soul of american politics, and they seem to be doing pretty well if we look at the polls, which is the poll surgery. right now it seems that the polls are indicating that the preparations of doctors obama and biden seem to be working so far for romnesia and ryanopia. >> ari, do you really see much of a change, particularly given what we're finding with in new polling in terms of the midwest, in terms of the rust belt? it looks as though the president's position there is robust, notwithstanding everything that's happened, including the conventions and the debates. >> i think that's right. and if you add to what dr. dyson said, part of the question here is whether that's are ftds, fox transmitted diseases. . >> that's possible. you have an echo chamber that said a lot of things. mitt romney wasn't conservative enough for fox and now he is. they're trying to convince everyone he's this different person. i think outside of the echo chamber and the national media, what you get on the ground is a

very different story. gallup polls and national tracking polls are more volatile because they poll a lot of areas that are irrelevant. ft. we're headed to election day and trying to make sense of it, if you're living in ohio, you're getting a lot more local feedback, a ground game from the obama campaign, local press from these visits. you're not swung as much by a single debate performance even though romney had a good one. in iowa and ohio, we're seeing over five-point leads, beyond the margin of error for obama. there's a good reason to think if he sews up the midwest, this thing won't be that close. >> yeah. dana, is it possible the president could lose the popular vote and win this election? >> well, no, because the supreme court by a vote of 5-4 would overturn the results in that case. but, you know -- >> of course! >> that's what would happen, but it's theoretically possible given that the national polls are very tight and obama seems to be doing better in key

battleground states. more likely the electoral college will just exaggerate or over emphasize the way the vote was going but it's always possible. >> professor dyson, i have to ask you in your metaphor of surgery was quite delicious and brilliant as i would expect of a man of your substance but i have to ask you this question, can the electorate be conned by a man who for six years has flipped in so many positions such that his position today is, i guess, about as viable as any position he held say two years ago? i mean, that's the point, isn't it? >> of course. the sad response is yes. the public can be hoodwinked, can be bamboozled, can be m misled. that's why we have bashirologists. the x-ray vision you possess and the capacity so see beyond the

mee asthma and the horrible rhetoric, the bashirology we present on this show and in your name and mold continues to hold the feet to the fire and make sure that romney does not get away with pulling the cloak, if you will, of mendacity over the eyes of the american public. that's why it's necessary to continue to tell the truth about it even when he wants to have his fantasy and spread the virus of that illusion to the rest of the world. weaver got to hold his feet to the fire and say that's not the truth and that's why it's important to do what you do. >> martin, that's what you saw in that important libya exchange in the debate. we will see more of that on monday. people could see with their own eyes mitt romney trying to have it both ways, really looking desperate and unsure all at once. did you say that? like he's a bully but then wondering what really was said. it was almost as if, and i don't say this just to beat up on him, it was almost as if it was more important to have a rhetorical

trick to attack the president than to get to the facts of what happened over there, which i would hope we'd all take serious. >> you're not accusing him of wanting to win the debate and lose the content? >> that was the problem, right? it came up over and over. >> dana, do you agree with that? >> that's entirely too cynical. yes, of course. it's all about winning a point minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. they've lost sight of what has actually been going on in libya and that's the cia has been heavily involved which nobody can talk about. >> michael iraq deric dyson, ar dana. thank you. >>. next, a new dawn, a fresh new controversial statement from a republican house member. well done. stay with us. >> i went to school here in new york, had a wonderful experience here. used to love walking through

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i'm sorry, i was just leafing through a binder we keep here at work. no, it's not minimum romney's binder full of women. this one is the bulging binder full of republicans who can't talk about women's bodies without sticking both feet into their mouths. the latest congressman or should i say clinical professor of

obstetrics and jin kolg is dr. joe walsh of illinois. it's his medical opinion that pregnancy can never harm the health of a woman. take a listen. >> there's no such exception of life of the mother. and as far as health of the mother, same thing. with advances in science and technology, there is -- health of the mother has become a tool for abortions any time under any reason. >> remarkable. but mr. walsh is not alone. you no doubt remember todd akin, he of the legitimate rape claim. or rick santorum who said pregnant rape victims should make the best of a bad situation. paul ryan, who co-sponsored 38 anti-abortion measures, including 10 with mr. akin this term. or gop mega donor foster freeze who once told our own andrea mitchell that contraception is as easy as an aspirin between the legs.

of course, to compile mitt romney's many flip-flops on the issue requires not one binder, but his own wing of the entire library as you can see. joining us now from washington is karen finney, a columnist for "the hill" and an msnbc political analyst, and julian epstein, a political strategist. karen, the centers for disease cell says maternal mortality, while low, has doubled in the past 25 years. can you please explain to me the mania that causes republicans like mr. walsh to couch their anti-choice arguments in the most ridiculous misappropriation of the evidence and the skin? >> you know, martin, clearly they're going to sit and cite those left wing conspiracy theory was the data points. joe walsh and todd akin have taught me a lot about my body that i never knew, and i think we should be paying attention.

women have mystical powers we never knew. medicine has clearly advanced to the point that every woman just doesn't have to worry anymore. it's really quite scientific the way they've gotten to these conclusions. >> you're saying, karen, your own personal health has been helped by mr. akin, mr. ryan, and others. >> absolutely. and i expect when they return to congress, they are going to actually create a new curriculum for students for health education because i think there's a wealth of information we're learning in this cycle. it's so ridiculous. i was listening to that comment and thinking who did he think he was talking to? there's not a woman in this country that would believe that. so clearly he thinks he's got to appeal -- this is a way he can appeal to male voters in his district because he can't think that any woman in his district is going to buy that line. >> right. julian, mitt romney is a sick man and the president may have diagnosed him today with a condition called rom nearby ya as we've heard. take a listen.

>> if you say you'll protect a woman's right to choose but you stand up in a primary debate and say you'd be delighted to sign a law outlawing that right to choose in all cases, man, you have definitely got romnesia. >> julian, you have worked on campaigns. comedy can work or it can backfire. how well does that work as a line of attack? >> i think it's very good because it makes the central point, and i actually had a slightly different diagnosis since we're all playing doctor today. i think it's -- i think romney and the republicans suffer from a case of political tourette's syndrome. the sense that on a weekly basis they continue to say things that are just deeply offensive to women, to all of the comments as we've talked about many times on this show, the sandra fluke episode and a whole long litany of very offensive comments and policies to women, for hispanics and the self-deportation, the 47%. i have seen more political incorrectness on an episode of "family guy."

and i think what the democrats have to do now in terms of making the closing argument is remind people, and i think it's good to do it in a humorous way, but we also need to remind people that, remember, whether or not he's flip-flopping positions, romney still opposes equal pay for women. he does not believe in a woman's right to choose. he does believe that the employer has the right to choose whether a woman can get contraceptive coverage in her health insurance, and these are deeply, deeply offensive and extremist positions that democrats, humor aside, have got to drive home now. >> yes. karen? >> i was just going to say, deeper than that tourette's makes they think perhaps there's a suggestion they know better. >> or it's involuntary, accidental, something they have to control over. >> that's right. and i think the deeper problem is they literally have no idea about american life in the 21st century. when you talk about things like self-deportation or when you as a presidential candidate in this country don't understand that, of course, for women access to

health care, access to birth control, and access to, you know, your abortion rights, your constitutionally guaranteed right there that those are economic issues, those are civil rights issues, that those are issues that women, a majority of women as poll after poll after poll keep showing take very seriously, take more seriously frankly and are a higher issue for voting than even the economy, then you have no business running for president in this country because you don't understand the people in the country that you're trying to lead. >> right. julian, i guess the beauty of romnesia is that it gets the campaign back to the overall narrative that has worked, and that is that mitt romney is an inveterate flip-flopper with no convictions, no core, no commitment to anything. i mean, if we had to try and work out what his vision for america is, i think you would see -- well, it would be impossible to quantify the number of visions that he has. >> i think that's right, and it is the tin man syndrome as we talked about many times. and i think that is effective,

but i also think after you make that point -- remember, they tried to use this charge on president clinton in 1992, the flip-flopper who didn't stand for anything, and it worked a little bit, but there's going to be more to it than him being a flip-flopper as effective as that is. i think they have to remind the public that this is a party and a candidate who has very extreme positions on social issues, as we just talked about, who has absolutely no position on economic issues, certainly doesn't have a jobs plan to speak of. the taxes we've talked about, the tax plan doesn't add up. on foreign policy doesn't have a position that is in any way distinguishable in any meaningful sense from the obama position. >> final question to you, karen, briefly give me a diagnosis of the mental condition afflicting congressman joe walsh. do you know what that is? >> oh, i think that's just pure dementia. clearly he's going to need to be hospital autoiized thinking theo woo voters is criticizing them

for picking out a dress. >> thank you very much. karen finney and julian epstein. next what does paul ryan have against irishmen? yes, irishmen. stay with us. >> i'm always seeing this advice, drink eight cups of water and i think who does that and the answer is paul ryan. >> paul ryan, yeah. i do. if you watch me during the day, you'll see a water bottle near me. >> i got to pee. >> i believe he said he had to go pe e. e. ally bank. why they're always there to talk. i love you, james. don't you love me? i'm a robot. i know. i know you're a robot! but there's more in you than just circuits and wires! uhhh. (cries) a machine can't give you what a person can.

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he says is the nonexistent war on women. he scoffs now it's a war on women. tomorrow it will be a war on left-handed irishmen or something like that. right? but how many left-handed irishmen do you know who would force a woman to carry her rapist baby to full time? how many left-handed irishmen opposed equal pay legislation because they were willing for their daughter to be paid less than their son for doing exactly the same job? how many left-handed irishmen do you know who believe that the supreme court judges should never have decided on roe v. wade back in 1973? no, i don't know any either, but i do know a vice presidential candidate who believes all three of those policies. policy that is would do untold harm to women. a right-handed irishman. stay with us.

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from trading jabs at hofstra to trading jokes in the big apple. here are today's "top lines." i was completing ga fauxing. >> 18 days virginia. >> malarkey. >> it's irish. >> irish is come over there and snack that dumb look off your face. >> i think president obama will come out swinging. >> mitt is confident. >> i think he will do 2350i7b. >> we have a fired up crowd. >> governor romney doesn't have a five point plan, he has a one point plan. >> you will get your chance in a moment. >> you wouldn't have taken such a sketchy deal. >> of course they ode up. binders full of women. president bush and i are different people. >> governor, you're the last person who is going to get tough on china. >> you have you looked at your mention. >> it's not az being as yours.

>> it was an act of terror. >> please proceed, governor. >> he did -- skoo joo could you say that a little louder. when he said 47% of the country considered themselves victims. >> it's alive. >> they were circling each other. >> i'm not going to whine about the moderator. >> the moderator becomes the ref. >> i thought it was devastating. >> you're a numbers guy. >> it wasn't the most embarrassing photo of ryan we've seen lately. >> i do drink a lot of water. i have a very fast metabolism. >> how is that for an answer? >> success. >> 100% blew it. >> journalistic terror. >> let them cry themselves to sleep. >> where a qualified woman was, he should have come to my house. >> binder of women, book of broads. >> vote with your lady smarts, not your lady parts. >> you want to take a swing at someone for calling your old man a liar. take a swing at me. >> undefeated. >> i think they were etch-a-sket etch-a-sketchy. >> please take your seats otherwise clint eastwood will yet al them.

>> it's nice to relax and wear what ann and i wear around the house. >> i understand governor romney went shopping for some stores. >> how many times a week does biden show up in a wet bathing suit to a meeting. >> we have to name this condition he's going through, romnes romnesia. >> let's get right to our panel now. we're joined by jared bernstein of the center on budget and policy priorities, msnbc contributor jimy williams, and professor james peterson, director of african studies at lehigh university. dr. peterson, we have an update on paul ryan's trip to the soup kitchen this week. as you know, mr. ryan visited a soup kitchen in youngstown, ohio, and did a photo-on-there despite its policy against political affiliations. they have that policy for fear of losing donations, and now the manager of that facility says this is exactly what's happening. he tells the hutchington post there's been a substantial backlash following mr. ryan's

photo-o photo-op. i guess now we know how much damage a ryan photo-op can do. >> they kind of thugged their way into the photo-op and people have a low tolerance now for politicians that are really just not authentic, and this is as inauthentic as you can be. a photo-op where you can't even stay around, talk to the folk. you can't help serve the food. >> there weren't any folk there. there weren't any folk there. >> even the people who staff the place. i mean, the idea that a politician would come in and do a hit and run photo-op like this is really disgusting to a lot of people and it's sad that the actual soup kitchen has to sort of bear the brunt of this. but hopefully mr. ryan will circle back and do a real sort of service trib with this group. >> jared, isn't the first rule of politics first do no harm? >> right. no, it's true, and it's very

difficult to make a trip to a soup kitchen become a negative for your campaign but somehow they accomplished this. i think the important thing, along with this kind of campaign exposure is to actually look at what the ryan budget does to low income programs and it's quite devastating. he proposes over $5 trillion of spending cuts. more than 60% of those cuts come from low income programs. by the way, the savings he gets from them goes right to the wealthy through their robin hood in reverse tax cuts. we're talking about pell grants, that's not something you heard from mitt romney in the debate so far, food stamps, housing assistance, certainly bloc granting, medicaid. these are ideas that very much hurt folks, and if you want to show up and pretend to wash their dishes, okay, but let's talk about your budget and its actually impact on people. to that point, jimmy, 18 days to go until the election, today we saw paul ryan leading a round table of entrepreneurs for

students at the university of south florida. i note that he was not invited by the university's math department, and again mr. numbers guy didn't offer any specifics. is that going to change before the race is over? or do you think mr. ryan is going to keep going with nof statistics as jared just said, no details, no explanation of the math, let's just get to the election? >> well, we have lots of statistics and lots of numbers that have come from his last three years of budgets. and jared just talked about those and he talked about them, by the way, in specifics. let's have a conversation about entrepreneurship and paul ryan. those two things cannot be actually uttered in the same sentence and here is why. paul ryan has worked only for the united states government his entire life or a conservative think tank. >> jimmy, i'm so glad to hear you say that. i've been listen to this nonsense from him, he was some

kind of outsider, had nothing to do with washington. >> he got to washington, d.c., right after i did. he waited tables as a poor staffer, by the way, across the capitol from where i waited tables as a poor senate staffer. he waited tables, i waited tables. he worked in the house, i worked in the senate. he was on the government teat as long as i was. in fact, i take that back. i only worked on the government teat for seven years as a staffer. he's been there for at least 14 years. but you know what? hi guess he knows everything there is to know about how to start a small business and how to be an entrepreneur because he's down in south florida talking about it. >> mr. romney alluded to his small business roots this week. >> right. >> unfortunately for him, paul krugman, nobel lawyer rat of the "new york times," pointed out bain capital had $37 million when it started and mr. romney was able to raise that money from central american ollie

gashgs with ties to death squads. what's that got to do with small business? >> it has nothing to do with the kind of small business entrepreneur vision they're trying to create, but it has everything to do with the way they think about small business. you know, the president talks about tax increases on the top 2%, 3% of small businesses, and these guys talk about that like that's going to devastate the hardware store on the corner. in fact, those businesses are much like the hedge funds, the pri private equity funds, top end law firms. they're the ones who actually started out in this case with $37 million of capital. that is not a small business that's going to be -- going to bring the economy to a slide if they have to pay their fair share of taxes. so i think it's emblematic of this world view that we're getting from this campaign that somehow the small business is the private equity firm that outsources jobs to china, like that's what their economic policy should be crafted on.

>> it's incredible. dr. peterson, redistribution is another word messrs. ryan and romney like to throw around as if it possessed ma eed magical why yet they are touting a 2006 study in support of the tax plan and this same study says eliminating reductions in loopholes will lead to the, yes, you guessed it, redistribution of tax liability from the upper income level to the middle class. so, doctor, i guess when it comes to studies that the romney/ryan team -- you know, i guess they're better off -- they're worse than the blog posts that they use both. >> we've got to do a much better job of defining what a study is. what's going on is the romney/radio iromney romney/ryan camp has fused their ideology. that's the reason why they're trying to redefine small businesses as someone like donald trump or some skind of

hedge under with a few employees. the reality is that our system is a redistributive system. any system where you pay taxes and use the resources for infrastructure redistributes the wealth of the common folk to then build bridges, build school, hire teachers. it doesn't make sense to try to demonize the government for the very fiber of its existence. it doesn't make sense. >> let me say, i agree with that point wholeheartedly, but i will also point out that there are many breaks in our tax code that redistribute income upward -- >> of course. >> -- and it's the hedge fund guys and gals, mostly guys, that are the beneficiaries of that and that's why mitt romney pays 14% effective tax rate when lots of people whose incomes are far lower pay double that rate. >> sorry to correct you, jared. it's actually 9% if he actually paid the tax rate that he should have paid in 2011 without giving away his charitable donations

deductions. >> that's a symptom of the kind of tax favorability of that kind of income that those guys are raising. >> absolutely. jared bernstein, dr. james peterson, and jimy williams. thank you, gentlemen. next, more on the president's diagnosis of mitt romney and his ever changing moods. stay with us. >> all of a sudden you heard governor romney claim $5 trillion tax cut, what are you talking about? all of a sudden as my little granddaughter natalie would say, what happened, did casper the ghost steal it? where did it go? i hope you all don't get romnesia. a taste of what's hot? check out the latest collection of snacks from lean cuisine. creamy spinach artichoke dip, crispy garlic chicken spring rolls. they're this season's must-have accessory. lean cuisine. be culinary chic.

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we doth offer so many discounts, we have some to spare. oh, you have any of those homeowners discounts? here we go. thank you. he took my shield, my lady. these are troubling times in the kingdom. more discounts than we knoweth what to do with. now that's progressive. just 18 days to go until voters hit the polls in person and the president after firing up the crowd during a rousing speech in fairfax, virginia, repairs to camp david to prepare for the third and final debate a debate that may prove critical to securing a second term. joining us is nbc's mike viqueira. what got in the president today?

he was on fire. >> reporter: you mentioned it, martin, we're 18 days away. the rice is taightening. it's hand to hand, door to door, tweet for tweet. the consultants and campaign workers have a phrase for this. they're winning the day. maybe the president was feeling, you know, in sort of a jocular mood after that dinner in new york city last night, that white tie dinner where they traded, did he and mitt romney, the good-natured barbs at the al smith dinner for catholic charities, but the president clearly in a lit height-hearted mood. we heard vice president biden at a separate rally, he picked up on it as well. >> what is this condition, mike? >> reporter: i heard you and dr. mill barng discussing it earlier in the hour. i think you put your finger on it. essentially what they're doing is they are going back to where they started. during the primary season what they said about mitt romney was

he was a flip-flopper. they said, quote, unquote, he had no core. then at the end of the primary season when he had to beat back those challengers to the right, they tried to tie that tea party millstone around his neck saying he was, in fact, a severe conservative, that he himself in his own construction would have it. after that last debate when he said some things about taxes and social issues, a whole myriad of issues actually, they're going back to this flip-flopping but they have that new phrase which is undoubtedly going to get a lot of play. it obviously did on twitter today, romnesia. >> i can't remember what the phrase was, mike. what was it again? that's right, romnesia. mike, thank you so much. and a programming note, we will broadcast live from boca raton on friday. stay with us.

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the president currently has a polling lead of 94 to 0 amongst african-americans voters and there's little doubt his victory four years ago was due in no small part from support from that very voting bloc, but tonight on b.e.t., a new documentary explores the critical question of whether or not black america will decide this year's presidential election. >> we don't want to be faced with somebody else as president and we're asking what more could i have done? >> go out and vote. >> are you registered? >> this election is about us. what we want america to be like. >> when people come together, politicians listen. >> we don't have $100 million, but we do have 100 million of us. >> and i'm delighted to welcome the two executive producers of "second coming: will black america decide 2012" mark levine and sam pollard. the title "second coming"

contains a question mark. this week harvard university released some polling data for those under the age of 30 which reveals that there's a 10-point gap in enthusiasm amongst young people. is that the same within the african-american community this time around? >> we're not sure but the idea behind the show is to sort of open it up so we can -- we can get a sense of how the black community feels both pro and con about president obama and the issues that he's been confronted with. and we're trying to do a different type, a more introspective look at the campaign than what you would normally see on the news media on fox or even msnbc. >> and what did you learn? >> we learned that there are people, wonderful people out there, like atasha williams who is a groos roots activist focused on helping president obama. we learned there are people like reverend stevens who doesn't feel strongly about obama or romney. charles perry is in chicago working in the neighborhood where there's lots of violence. he's trying to get those people out to vote. you know, we've looked at a

variety of people and their different perspectives and issues concerning the re-election campaign. >> mark, given the disproportionate effect of the recession on african-americans, are you picking up through the work in this documentary, are you picking up an anger towards this president? blame perhaps? making him responsible for this? >> i think there's a frustration, as there is with almost all americans that the recovery has been slower than everyone would imagine, and i guess i would add to what sam said that the thrill is gone. you know, when you mentioned that statistic. it's not history in the making as it was in 2008. but i think what is replacing it, which is interesting, is there's a real sense that president obama, there's a lot been thrown his direction. i mean, from a governor wagging her finger in his face and somebody screaming at the state of the union, you're a liar, the birer movement -- >> there's been an atrocious amount of abuse thrown at this president. >> i think that's become another

motivating force that is turning people out. >> do you agree with that? >> i completely agree. i think when people see this, they are at some level appalled. they say we have to do something to make sure people get out the vote. that people are really galvanized to vote, to really look at the issues, to look at the things that both romney and president obama are saying and make a decision. >> and if you were to hazard a guess at who is going to win this election, based on the work you have done in this documentary, who is it going to be? >> i would say president obama. i feel fairly confident especially after the debate this week that it's moving in that direction, but i think it does come down to the ground game. there are people on the ground, even like sam mentioned, tarsha a struggling economically. she's lost a few jobs but her enthusiasm and her ability to go out and rally her neighbors is something to marvel. that's going to make the difference. >> marc and sam, thank you both. we'll be sure to tune in tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on b.e.t. for the premier of "second coming." we'll be right back.

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i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like. i talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. because enbrel, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. [ phil ] get back to the things that matter most.

ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biolog medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. it's time now to "clear the air. wti wtion" what does a new york city petty cab driver have in common with mitt romney and paul ryan? quite a lot actually. on tuesday according to numerous reports he invited a family of four from texas to take a very short ride in his pedi cab. the distance was just over ten blocks picking up the family at 42nd street and taking them to an area that typically attracts a large number of tourists. i appeared to be a pedi cab driver and the family was ass e assurassur assured he would get them to their destination. they hopped in, sat back, and

enjoyed the brief ride. like mr. ryan and mr. romney, he didn't go in any specifics about the cost of the journey. and the family made the assumption that while new york city prices can be a little higher than elsewhere, they assumed it wouldn't be much more than a cab fare which would be around $10 for such a short distance. when they arrived at their destination they got the biggest shock of their lives. according to one newspaper, he charged them $442.54. yes, $442.54, and it was perfectly legal. the ride itself took just 12 minutes across just 12 blocks. so this family from texas, and families across the country should learn a very important lesson. it's never safe to go on a trip unless you know the exact cost of the journey. and until mitt romney and paul ryan give us some real details about their plans for the economy, then we should all

assume that they're taking us for a ride. thank you so much for watching. we have one correction before we go. jared bernstein is currently on leave from the center on budget and policy priorities. the views he expressed today were not those of the center but his own. chris matthews picks things up now with "hardball." wild race. let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with this. the battle between the president and his challenger is heading in overdrive. one guy is going to survive this two-week drill dwen now and lest day, the other guy is gog to go down big time, big time. everybody can see how close this is. the loser will get pilloried by his party. how can you be so sought of it?